Just another post about my continuing involvement with politics...Well on Thursday 10th June I attended my first ever Labour event where Ed Miliband was speaking about his bid to be Labour leader. I went feeling ready to be inspired and I really wanted to like him but now feel a bit flat.
Having said that though there were glimmers of hope which I'll write about below.
I arrived at 4.45pm in readiness for the event starting at 5pm. I handed in my ticket but wasn't really greeted by anyone. I guess maybe I have higher expectations, in that when someone, a group or whatever is hosting an event, they would have greeters to welcome people and perhaps guide them to their seats. I was amazed by how many people were already there but although there may still have been vacant seats nearer the front, I was a bit concerned in case they were reserved for the 'great and the good'. So I hung at the back near some other people and enquired with someone standing around whether it would be okay for me to just help myself to a chair from a pile at the side of the room. He said he thought that would be okay and courteously helped me with the chair, placing it at the back next to 3 other people.
The woman to my left immediately struck up a conversation with me saying that she was glad I was sat next to them as another woman (possibly one of the organisers) had kept trying to gather up all the chairs and have people standing instead, which I thought was rather odd. The Friendly woman then proceeded to ask me a bit about myself, where I was from and if I was a member of the Labour party etc. I explained that I felt that I as a bit of a fraud as although I was a member of the party, I had only joined a month ago and I was from Bradford, not Leeds. She said that was fine and she was glad I was there. She asked me if I had any questions for Ed Miliband to which I explained that one of my most pressing questions is:
Most of the contenders for the Labour leadership are career politicians including him, which in and of itself may not be a problem but how's he going to identify with and manage to engage and inspire the 'normal' man or woman and potential voters such as myself. For instance I, by necessity have to work full-time just to pay for childcare, mortgage, gas, electric, water and council tax and we have no spare income, in fact we struggle to make ends meet. How is he going to encourage and inspire people like me to get involved when we are from such drastically different worlds.
The Friendly woman then said that she had been a branch secretary in the Labour party for many years and advised me to definitely go ahead and ask my question but to keep it succinct but feel free to include a bit about myself as an ordinary voter to paint that picture for him.
Just then Ed Miliband arrived and walked to the front of the room while Hillary Benn (MP for Leeds Central) introduced him. I totally loved Hillary Benn, he is either a brilliant politician or he really is genuinely a sincere and caring man because that is definitely how he came across even in the few minutes of introducing Ed and explaining why he was supporting his bid to be the next Labour leader.
The next person who got up was Rachel Reeves (MP for Leeds West) and she basically reiterated what Hillary Benn had said which then came across as being a bit cheesy and it gave the impression of being a bit of an Ed Miliband fan club.
Finally Ed got up to applause, and gave a short speech about why he got involved in politics and why he wanted to be the next leader. On occasions in the speech, I found myself nodding in agreement with him. For instance, when he said, “We won't win if we don't inspire” and when he referred to why he wants to close the gap between rich and poor which matters “because often the fruits of an unequal society have nothing to do with how hard you worked” and how we need the High Pay Commission not to limit itself to looking at the public sector but the private sector also.
I think those are both basic thoughts that I for one couldn't help but agree with.
The speech then ended and there was a Q&A session. I immediately put my hand up to ask my question and was again encouraged by the Friendly woman's nudging. Rachel Reeves was the one responsible for picking on who got to ask the questions and although there seemed to be a lot of different people asking questions there were a large percentage of people that she picked on who she clearly knew such as “Tony from the GMB union” or “Councillor such and such” etc etc which is fair enough I guess but if it was supposed to be an open access event it didn't come across that way. The Friendly woman next to me (who remember was a branch secretary) got to ask two questions although admittedly they were both related and were about the issue of the Living Wage campaign which Ed has put his support to.
But there were several people including me who had kept patiently putting their hands up to try and get the opportunity to ask a question who unfortunately were not called upon to ask our questions. I guess that's fair enough as there were a lot of people there but I felt that Rachel Reeves could have managed the questioning a little bit better so that she didn't come across as just wanting to pick the people that she knew or wanted to be seen to know. I really got the impression that she is just someone who is a politician first ad cares about people second. That may be a little unfair but it was my perception.
I would have thought that it may have been better at the commencement of the evening if we could have submitted written questions so that perhaps questions falling under similar broad headings could all have been dealt with.
Some of the questions were really good and I felt that Ed answered them competently although some of his answers made me realise that politicians really do speak a different language.
His summing up was almost brilliant and I appreciated that his answers to some questions such as “Could you live on the proposed Living Wage of £7.60 an hour?” were answered honestly.
But having said that, this whole event has opened my eyes to some of the realities of politics and I felt very deflated on Friday. I had gone wanting to be inspired by a leader with a real down to earth touch who wasn't so obviously part of the 'political class' i.e. so far removed from the majority of ordinary hard-working people. I felt down I guess because I had really wanted to believe in Ed Miliband but I think I was expecting someone to inspire me in a similar way to the way my church pastor inspires me. He's a man with unbelievably humble beginnings (from Chickenley in Dewsbury) who has the ability to talk to people at all levels of the socio-economic spectrum with a sense of understanding and with the ability to encourage all of us to rise above our humble beginnings to do whatever is in our hearts to do. He encourages us to soar with our strengths and to dream big.
Maybe I've been spoilt by having such a great pastor but I feel sure that the right leader for the Labour party is out there somewhere and I look forward to hopefully getting the chance to attend a leadership hustings so I can hear all of the leadership candidates speak and share their vision for the party and for our great country.
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